Increased attention has been drawn to the abuse of prescription pharmaceutical compositions. The abuse, or non-medicinal use, of prescription pharmaceutical compositions has been reported to be an increasing problem. In North America, abuse of prescription pharmaceutical compositions has become an important issue for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the pharmaceutical industry is striving to develop abuse-deterrent pharmaceutical compositions in order to reduce the potential for misuse of prescription pharmaceutical compositions. Prescription pharmaceutical compositions that are typically misused fall, primarily, into three groups: 1) Opioids prescribed for pain; 2) Central Nervous System (CNS) depressants prescribed for anxiety or sleep problems; and 3) Stimulants, prescribed, for example, for attention deficit hyperactivity, narcolepsy, or obesity.
Methods for abusing prescription pharmaceutical compositions are varied and can include, for example, extraction, melting, volatilization, physical tampering (e.g., grinding, grating, crushing, etc.), or direct administration. For purposes of abuse, methods of administering active drug substances obtained from prescription pharmaceutical compositions or of the pharmaceutical compositions themselves are similarly diverse and include, for example, injection, smoking, snorting, swallowing, sublingual or buccal administration, chewing, and administration as suppository. Alcohol-induced dose dumping of active drug substance from prescription pharmaceutical compositions also presents potential abuse and safety problems.